Athletes, including swimmers, typically wear tight fitting garments which help decrease air/water resistance, which is especially important in competitive events. Many styles of sports garments, including swimsuits, include shoulder straps that pass over the athletes shoulders when the garments is worn to help locate and hold the garment in place on the athletes body.
A conventional shoulder strap construction for sports garments includes an elastic strap element around which a textile (usually the same textile used for the body of the garment) is wrapped to completely enclose the elastic strap element. The textile and elastic are typically stitched to secure this composite structure together.
Straps having this conventional construction are typically quite bulky and are prone to twisting, buckling and curling when in position over an athlete's shoulder. This can lead to pinching, discomfort and sometimes visible markings on the skin. The modulus of elasticity that can be achieved for straps of this construction is limited, the straps therefore having a relatively high degree of stretch. This can lead to excessive stretching of the strap during athletic motion (e.g. swimming), which in turn can lead to movement of the strap across the skin that can cause chaffing. A higher modulus of elasticity could be achieved by using a stronger elastic but this would undesirably restrict the athlete's freedom of movement and would also exacerbate the pinching and discomfort caused by the strap as it is pulled more tightly against the skin.